Two friends died when a speeding car went out of control around a bend and crashed into another oncoming car in Creeslough, Co Donegal, an inquest has heard.
The last moments of the horrific crash which claimed the lives of Michael McGinley, 21 and Jamie Bonner, 19, were recalled at the men’s joint inquest at Letterkenny Courthouse.
The inquest heard that the Volkswagen Golf TDI car being driven by Mr McGinley under-steered and crossed onto the wrong side of the road.
A fraction of a second later it struck an Audi A4 car being driven in the opposite direction leaving the driver with serious injuries.
The other driver, Belfast man Brian Maguire, told the inquest how he simply didn’t have time to react when he met the VW Golf car coming around the bend at Derryart, Creeslough on the night of September 1st, 2020.
Mr Maguire, who has a holiday home in nearby Dunfanaghy, said he simply had not have time to react or even to say to himself that he was going to be in a crash.
“There was an explosion all around me and I remember there being lights and the car was full of dust and the radio was still playing,” he said.
Mr Maguire said he remembered saying to himself that he needed to get out of the car and crawled out onto the grass verge.
He said he felt a stinging pain in his chest but that everything else was “jumbled up” after that.
Fire Brigade officer at Falcarragh Fire Station, Joe Friel, told how his crew were on the scene at 9.53pm after receiving a call at 9.35pm.
He told how his team found three young men in the VW Golf were all wearing seatbelts.
He said that the front seat passenger was unresponsive while the driver of the car was breathing but unresponsive
A third person in the back seat was responsive.
Mr Friel gave details of his team using cutting machinery to extract two of the injured men from the wrecked car.
He also told how some time later a doctor from NowDoc arrived on the scene and pronounced the front seat passenger dead.
The passenger was Jamie Bonner, a 19-year-old man from Dungloe.
His remains were taken to Letterkenny University Hospital where he was later officially identified by his father Declan.
The driver of the car, Michael McGinley, was taken to the Intensive Care Unit of the hospital after suffering critical injuries.
The inquest was told that so severe was an injury to Michael’s brain that it caused his body to slow down and he sadly also passed away on September 27th, almost a month after the horrific crash.
A third man, a James Gallagher from Maghery, who was the back seat passenger in the car suffered some injuries but made a full recovery.
A mechanical inspection of both cars found that both were in a good serviceable pre-accident condition.
However, it was noted that the front two tyres of the VW Golf being driven by Mr McGinley were excessively worn under the legal thread limit.
Garda Forensic Collision Investigator, Sgt Gerard McCauley, carried out a full forensic examination of the scene of the crash.
He clarified both cars had been in a good, serviceable condition and that all four involved in the two car collision had been wearing seatbelts.
He told of the huge damage to both cars from the sudden impact and how it was Mr McGinley’s car which had crossed onto the wrong side of the road and struck Mr Maguire’s white Audi A4.
It had been raining earlier in the night but weather was not a factor and the road was in a good condition with good signage.
The speed limit controlling the area where the crash occurred is governed by a 100 kph limit.
However, Sgt McCauley said he could not determine exactly what speed the VW Golf was traveling at because there were no skid marks from the car and there were no cameras in the area to take measurements from.
He added that it was clear that both passenger sides of each car took the brunt of the force and that Mr Maguire had tried to take evasive action but could not.
He said from his investigation it was evident the VW Golf had under-steered and had crossed onto its wrong side of the road colliding with the Audi A4.
Coroner Dr Denis McCauley confirmed that postmortems had been carried out on each victim.
He concluded that Mr Bonner’s cause of death was multiple injuries as a result of a road traffic accident and his death was accidental.
Mr McGinley’s cause of death was brain injuries caused as a result of a road traffic accident and his death was also accidental, the coroner added.
Dr McCauley sympathised with both families who were present at the inquest reserving a special word for the work of the emergency services as did Garda Sergeant Fergus McGroary who overseen the inquest on behalf of An Garda Siochana.
Solicitor for Mr Bonner’s family, Mr Cormac Hartnett, thanked all involved in the inquests saying the verdicts gave them some “tiny solace.”
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